Wednesday, August 8, 2018

The Sierras

This poem is the first among those that I have read so far that saw publication during Clark Ashton Smith's (CAS) lifetime. That publication occurred in Munsey's magazine in 1910.  So the ideal place to read the work is a digital copy of that appearance at the Hathitrust:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015024196829;view=1up;seq=795

(Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the poem by "C. Ashton Smith").

This is a fairly straight-forward lyric poem, but I like the celebration of the Golden State of California right at the end:


Vast guarders of the golden land
          That watch and wait forevermore.


As with the poem "A Sierran Sunrise" which I discussed in an earlier blog post, "The Sierras" represents CAS as a regional poet, which provides an interesting contrast to his more common reputation as a fantastic poet.


No comments:

Post a Comment